Participating Places
Participants in the Berkana Exchange share a commitment to strengthening their community’s leadership capacity and self-reliance by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environment. We have found these friends in Brazil, Canada, Greece, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, the U.S. and Zimbabwe. We know they are everywhere. Some of the organizations in the Berkana Exchange are urban; others are rural. Some are based in the North; others in the South. Our differences our vast. But what hold us together as a learning community are our shared values and beliefs about how change happens. We all are working to create the future we wish for. We all are practicing and experimenting and innovating new ways of creating healthy and resilient communities.
Abhivyakti, India
Abhivyakti Media for Development promotes diverse media forms and messages, originating from different sources. The vision is to create multiple exchange nodes, so that a plural media environment emerges. Abhivyakti engages with grassroots communities to strengthen their leadership capacity and self-confidence. Their goal is to promote learning through various media that enriches community life with self-directed initiatives, dialogue, reflection, relationships, connections and creative action.
Axladitsa-Avatakia, Greece
Axladitsa-Avatakia is a 24-acre organic olive and fruit farm in South Pelion, Greece. The land and its stewards offer a container for collective remembering of what it means to be in intimate and integrated relationship with oneself, with others and our natural environment. Axladitsa-Avatakia provides opportunities for people of all ages and from all parts of the world to learn, explore, create and develop sustainable environmental, social and economic practices.
Community Services Unlimited, U.S.A.
CSU’s mission is to foster the creation of communities actively working to address inequalities and systemic barriers that make sustainable, self-reliant life-styles unattainable. They envision equitable, healthful and sustainable communities where every individual has the support and resources needed to develop to their fullest capacity. CSU is working toward this vision by encouraging and empowering South Central Los Angeles residents, from pre-schoolers to seniors, to eat and grow healthy food in their own neighborhoods.
Durban INK, South Africa
The three Durban townships of Inanda, Nzuma, and Kwamashu form Durban INK, where government-sponsored citizen initiatives have begun to support people in rebuilding their townships. It is a bold experiment in how to use government funds and staffing to support residents, without falling into the common trap of increasing dependency and decreasing community self-reliance.
Elos Institute, Brazil
Elos Institute works to help people recover their ability to dream and find the will to realize these dreams with others. The Institute works with people from high-risk urban and traditional communities in the Sao Paulo area and with social entrepreneurs from four continents. Elos believes that everybody wants to transform the world, and can. They are dedicated to creating opportunities where people can contribute joyfully, voluntarily and cooperatively to build a more beautiful and abundant world for all.
South Africa Fisherwomen’s Association, South Africa
In 2000 Sahra Luyt created the South African Fisherwomen’s Association (SAFWA) by rounding up a few women in her township to explore the idea that women, too, could earn their living by fishing—a radical concept at the time. Word about the project spread and membership is now 500-strong. Members were soon able to provide for their own families, so they opened a soup kitchen to provide food for others in the community. They are now exploring garden projects and other initiatives that will move their neighborhoods towards greater autonomy and self-reliance.
The GreenHouse Project, South Africa
Founded in 1998, The GreenHouse Project serves the needs of the Hillbrow community, infamous for overcrowding, unemployment and crime. The main facility is a renovated green building surrounded by plots for community gardening and teaching. The small building boasts composting toilets, greywater recycling and natural lighting. The GreenHouse Project focuses on the following four practice areas: green building and design, renewable energy, recycling and organic food production.
IDSP, Pakistan
The Institute for Development Studies and Practices in Quetta, Pakistan creates learning spaces for young people that empower them to respond to challenges in education, learning, livelihood, peace and pluralism. IDSP believes that in conventional development, community members are often left out of the planning process—their richness, wisdom and sensibilities overlooked. IDSP’s mission is to nurture and develop individuals and communities in order to change power structures. They do this by demystifying processes of education and development, and generating value-based partnerships and practices at all levels.
Kufunda, Zimbabwe
Kufunda Learning Village is a learning center and model village whose purpose is to inspire the co-creation of strong, resilient communities in Zimbabwe and beyond. Kufunda does this by sharing wisdom, practices and social systems that they believe make communities healthy, vibrant and largely self-reliant. Kufunda is working with five rural villages and one urban group to develop the foundation for initiatives that will strengthen and nourish these communities. Kufunda’s projects include: Permaculture, living positively with HIV/AIDS, herbs and nutrition, ecological sanitation, community currency, among others.
Lapeng Family and Childhood Center, South Africa
Lapeng is passionately committed to the realization of children’s rights. The organization has been at the heart of the transformation of Joubert Park, downtown Johannesburg’s largest green space, from a no-go area frequented by thieves, to a vibrant hub of community life and a place where children play freely. Lapeng’s primary purpose is to support the development of children and families, establish a social safety net and to increase the understanding of children’s rights both locally and nationally.
Santropol Roulant, Canada
Santropol Roulant is a community organization in Montreal that uses food as a vehicle to break social and economic isolation between the generations and to strengthen and nourish the local community. A social service with an environmental and social change ethos, the Roulant aims to bring nutritious and ethically produced food to their community. Since 1995, with the energy of thousands of volunteers, they have made over 335,000 meals and delivered them by bicycle, on foot and by car to seniors and people living with a loss of autonomy across their city.
Shikshantar, India
Shikshantar works to challenge and provoke new ideas about education, and to construct and connect open learning communities. Their diverse efforts range from publishing and hosting dialogues to the exploration of innovative approaches to organic farming, solar cooking, rainwater harvesting, vermicomposting, upcycling waste materials, working with medicinal plants and spinning cloth. Shikshantar’s vision is inspired by the concept of swaraj, or rule over oneself, a call for people to lead and create their own models of development that are holistic, pluralistic, sustainable, liberating, collaborative, just and participatory.
Split Rock Learning Center, Canada
Located in the village of Carleton, Nova Scotia, Split Rock Learning Center is housed at the Shire, a non-traditional venue and conference centre on 165 acres of beautiful land in Yarmouth County. Split Rock offers a wide range of local and international programs that support community building, youth leadership and rural livelihood. It is a place for people to learn self-reliance and become equipped in community leadership through residential and non-residential programs. The learning center’s main project at this time is a youth drop-in center in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
Tryon Life Community Farm, U.S.A.
At the confluence of rural farmland and native forest in the urban center of Portland, Oregon, TLC Farm demonstrates tangible ways to take sustainability from a nice idea to a lived experience. The farm’s mission is to grow community learning while preserving common green space, restoring native ecosystems, and demonstrating sustainable urban living. TLC is located on the edge of Tryon Creek State Park, a 650-acre ecosystem of towering firs, cedars and diverse Northwest forest. The farm itself sits on seven acres of rolling meadow, gardens, homes, naturally-built structures, and wooded cliffs. It is both a sustainability educational center as well as a community gathering place.
Uhuru Collective, Zimbabwe
Uhuru is a network of four coordinated youth collectives in Harare working together at a grassroots level to train young people in democracy and public participation. Each of the collectives carries out small, confidence-building actions that increase young activists’ abilities to reclaim power in their communities. The main areas of focus for the collectives are urban agriculture, community media, art for social change and youth sports programs, particularly soccer. Through coordinating decentralized, distributed action with civil society and other social movements, Uhuru aims to build capacity for large-scale systems change in Zimbabwe.
Unitierra, Mexico
Universidad de la Tierra (Unitierra) is an initiative in Oaxaca, México that focuses on reclaiming the freedom to learn. The organization views learning as an aspect of everyday life and study as an autonomous exercise of free people. Here, young people take control of their own learning, seeking knowledge out in the world and in their communities, through reflection, study and reading circles. Some paths of learning include explorations in appropriate technology, convivial ways of living, popular media, urban agriculture and traditional healing methods. At Unitierra they believe that by affirming the dignity of every human being and our relationship with nature and one other, we challenge existing systems that no longer serve.
